Today we’re interviewing Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ. A consulting firm in Japan. Akiko is also the main point of contact for Smart Kitchen Summit Japan, a satellite conference of Michael Wolf’s conference of the same name,
Akiko gives us a short history of the innovation of Japan, in which she played a huge part of in her past life.
I think this interview also gives me perspective on what exactly is food tech. Whenever I talk about food tech, I generally gravitate to alternative proteins, but that’s not the case. Food Tech is where we apply any technology to food. Though the material is the cool part, there are tons of other sectors in Food Tech I personally have no idea about!
One of my favorite quotes from Akiko was our discussion on the first SKS conference in Japan. Apparently, it was just a small 200-person conference but they were all full of crazy, passionate, people.
And of course, I talk to Akiko about Japanese entrepreneurship. In general, Japan doesn’t have many startups because it’s too risky, but Akiko gives me hope that that soon might change.
When it comes to sustainability, the Japanese have a very different viewpoint on food. Basically, they don’t really care if food is sustainable, but they care about other things in food tech.
What’s Up With Adam
Alright, getting a groove with life. I’m doing pretty well! Instead of talking about my personal life, I want to go in depth about my trip to Japan while traveling around Asia.
So I dunno if I told this story before, but my trip to Japan was crazy! First, how I got there, well my trip was kind of delayed for a month due to COVID. I love this story because it’s a great story about just in general, what happens when you take a bad situation, good.
Well, I was invited to Japan for the Smart Kitchen Summit in like, August, and I was in Cambodia at the time. Well, not only did it take me forever to get a COVID test, but I tested positive for COVID! At the time, Japan would only
I actually didn’t know how challenging with was to get a VISA in Japan and even if I got a negative covid test, I forgot about the whole VISA process, at the time, you needed a sponsor.
So basically, I couldn’t go to Japan the day before the actual show but I’m so glad I didn’t. I was able to do the conference online at a nice Cambodian hotel and apparently, people liked it!
So after that, I had to move some things. I had a hard commitment to South Korea and so I had a month left to do whatever. So I decided on two things:
Attend a food conference in Singapore and visit my friend Andrea Zeng while she was traveling to Vietnam.
So that both happened and just distilling it in hindsight, I’m so glad I did.
For the Singapore conference, I was able to hang out with a lot of cool people and reinforce my relationship with a lot of people. One of these people became an investor in my new company which actually made the ROI of this trip, covered. Crazy to think about,
Though finagling Vietnam was a pain, it was a great experience. I had set flights to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi and I could on;t stay in Ho Chi Minh was like, a day. Beautiful city, wish I spent more time. Hanoi was great, about 12 days there? It’s an interesting city. Anyways, Andrea told me that her and 3 friends were doing a cruise in Ha Long Bay, which is like, a really fancy experience. Well worth it, especially if you’re either a newlywed or an influencer. For about $300 dollars, did a 2 day cruise with her crew and it was a blast!
I was also fortunate to go to Japan after South Korea where I connected with the people I was going to meet, and I have so much more to say about Japan as we progress through the episodes.
Enjoy this interview with Akiko Okada. We do this interview in Tokyo, Japan!
Links
SigmaXYZ
SKS Conference Japan
McKinsey
Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle
Michael Wolf
Impossible Foods
Beyond Meat
Base Foods
Oishii Strawberries
SigmaXYZ Newsletter
Roundtable Workshop
Japanese Work Life
Hodo Foods
Sustainability Development Goals
Food Waste
Food Security
One Piece
Family Mart
Seven Eleven
Donki
Aeon
Washoku
SKS Japan Website
Aokada@sigmaxyz.com